Hasbroís new line of Avengers movie 3.75Ē figures have started hitting retail shelves, so I had to run out and grab the new Captain America figure to check out first hand. The figure technically is called Shield Launcher Captain America because he comes with this big giant shield launching contraption. The figure itself is based on the costume design as seen in the movie.

Packaging - All of the new 3.75Ē Avengers figures come packaged on the same basic-looking cardbacks. Blue with the main characters of Thor, Cap, Iron Man and Hulk up in the corner, the back of the cardback shows off the particular figure along with a few other figures in the wave along with a short description of the character at the bottom. There is nothing terribly fancy about the packaging, but it does allow you to get a good look at the figures before purchasing.

Sculpt - The Sculpt of this figure actually is quite nice. A lot of details of the costume are captured nicely here, and I actually think the costume looks better here than the one actually seen in the movie. If we based the entire review on this one category then you would be walking away thinking this was one of the best 3.75Ē Captain America figures Hasbro has made to date.

Paint - This is where things start to go into the crapper for this figure. At first glance, the paint apps look good and detailed. The mixing of lighter and darker blues on the arms and shoulders look good. The A and wings on the helmet are nice and clear, and the figure overall is visually appealing. The problem with the paint becomes apparent once you start handling the figure. After a few simple poses with the figure, the paint started chipping off. You will notice in our images red scratches around the leg on the holster and blue scratches on the shield. That all happened while we were shooting pictures. I donít think this problem with the paint is just limited to our figure either, because we noticed a number of the figures at retail had paint blemishes on them. Cheap quality paint comes to mind when I see this kind of thing.

Articulation - It is pretty common for companies to skimp on the articulation when it comes to movie lines. It helps keep the cost of making the figure down when they use less articulation and the line of thinking seems to be that kids donít mind, which is the audience these companies are primarily trying to attract with these lines. So going in I wasnít expecting super-articulated figures, but these Avenger figures are lacking in articulation even more so than usual. You do get double-jointed knees with Cap, but he has no ankle or wrist articulation, no chest articulation and, worst of all, no swivel motion at the waist. If Hasbro had just given this figure the same amount of articulation they gave their 3.75Ē Captain America: The First Avenger figure, it would have been a better quality figure.

Accessories - Captain America comes with a pistol that fits in his sculpted holster on his leg, a regular shield, and a bigger shield that fits on a big green-looking shield launcher gadget. Basically, you put the big shield on the launcher then shoot it into the air. The launcher is so big that the figure canít hold it very well because it makes him to top-heavy. I guess kids are supposed to like it because they can shoot the shield out at people, but honestly I would have rather seen Hasbro spend the money on more articulation or better quality paint than on this thing.

Fun Factor - Lack of articulation and cheap paint really limits what potentially could have been a great figure. He does fit in well to vehicles like the new Quinjet which is nice, but the limited number of cool fighting and battle poses takes away a lot.

Check out our GALLERY of detailed images for this figure below and let us know what you think of it.